Bryan Washington, novelist

In today’s episode we have the 100% on-fire novelist, Bryan Washington, penning effing beautiful and raw stories straight out of the streets of Houston for his story collection Lot. He shares his ridiculously envy-enducing publishing journey for you, adding another to the longitudinal study that proves the traditional path to publication is a mythical creature in line with the hippogriff, the Lochness, and the chupacabra. Other topics of discussion include: chupacabras, the Katy suburb of Houston, and it’s food scene (yes! There IS one) and the importance of finding an amazing agent and editor who really get your work, and — perhaps most importantly — why if you want to be a writer you shouldn’t be an asshole, and if you are a writer you should also not be an asshole.

Buy/read all the things from Bryan Washington:

His short story collection, Lot, is available here.
Bryan’s most recent NYer story, “Visitor” and this gem of an interview (also from the NYer) on “stories that don’t make you feel worse”
His new novel, Memorial, (forthcoming fall 2020) draws on his work in No.6 Fiction Issue, SPOOK magazine.
Finding holiness in noodles from his Catapult series on Houston
Ben Rybeck (former Houstonian now with The Center for Fiction) interviewed Bryan here for Lithub

Honorable Mentions:

Some of Bryan’s influences w/r/t place-as-character

American Son by Bryan Ascalon Roley
Real World by Natsuo Kirino
A Good Fall by Ha Jin
Vida by Patricia Engel
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Also loves:

Short story collection, Fly Already by Etgar Keret (Riverhead Books)

Visit Bryan’s website for more about him and/or his Twitter for updates on his short stories, interests, and the food he’s digging.

Kate Martin WilliamsJanuary 22, 2020Comment